Emergency Aid For Farms Withers On The Vine

June 17, 1985|By Tim Franklin and Daniel Egler, Chicago Tribune.

Just two months ago, Illinois legislators were issuing dire warnings about the worst farm crisis since the Depression. Unless the state came to the rescue, they said, many of the state`s 96,000 farmers would not be able to start spring planting.

Acting on these warnings, the General Assembly approved the $25 million Illinois Emergency Farm Credit Allocation Act. Under the program, the state would pay half the interest on operating loans to farmers. The farmers would pay the other half and then reimburse the state over five years.

But on Friday, the last day to apply for the program, only an estimated 500 farmers had signed up for about $1.25 million in state aid, according to Ron Bailey, director of the Illinois Farm Development Authority, which is administering the program.

That would leave unused about $23.75 million of the $25 million allocated for the program.

Why have so few farmers taken advantage of the program?

Sen. Vince Demuzio (D., Carlinville), a sponsor of the measure, said there was a lack of information about the program after a flurry of press reports when it passed the legislature.

He said the farm debt problem is very real, and he defended the need for the program. Even if the plan helped just a few dozen farmers stay in business, it was worth it, Demuzio said.

``It didn`t help as many farmers as we thought,`` he said. ``But I still think there is a need to help. I think it was well worth the effort.``

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Ozzie and Harriet never brawled in public.

Neither, so far at least, have Mike and Shirley Madigan, who have widely differing views on the importance of the 1992 Chicago World`s Fair.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago) has consistently raised questions about the planned lakefront exposition and is widely considered in statehouse hallways to be one of the fair`s biggest skeptics.

Mrs. Madigan, chairwoman of the Illinois Arts Council and of an arts and entertainment advisory committee to the fair, testified in committee last week that the fair is needed to improve the cultural, and therefore the economic, lives of Illinois citizens.

``The fair is an idea whose time has come,`` she testified. ``The need is great throughout our state for the new life it promises. Don`t turn away from the dream.``

Doesn`t that statement put the first lady of the arts in Illinois and her husband at opposite ends of the issue?

``That`s a distinct possibility,`` said a diplomatic Mrs. Madigan in an interview after her testimony. ``We don`t really talk about it that much.``

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Gov. James Thompson, who has kept a low public profile in the capital for the last few weeks, intends to thrust himself back onto center stage beginning Monday as the legislature enters its last two weeks of the session.

The Republican governor, who is known for his adroit media skills, has stayed out of the limelight as lawmakers have debated, squabbled and reworked details of legislation dealing with the major issues faced by the General Assembly.

Though he has made himself available to reporters at impromptu sessions, Thompson has not called a news conference on legislative matters since May 12, a spokesman for the governor said.

Aides said Thompson had no reason to involve himself in the public bickering early in the legislative session, when most major bills are in their far-from-polished form.

``It`s been too early,`` one senior aide said. ``You have to wait to see how things are jelling out. I think you are going to start seeing more of him now.`` With legislative leaders revolting at his tax plan for school reform, Thompson will be back in front of the television cameras Monday, when he is to fly to six Illinois cities in an attempt to rally public support for his education initiatives.

In addition, aides said, the governor may hold summit conferences with legislative leaders this week on such key issues as the World`s Fair, lights at Wrigley Field and off-track betting.

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Lt. Gov. George Ryan, sidelined by an appendicitis and an emergency operation, is recuperating in his Kankakee home.

``I went to the Senate Republican Dinner in Chicago last Thursday night and I thought I had just gotten some bad food,`` Ryan joked in an interview.

``Friday, the doctors told me the appendix was coming out.``

Last week, Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, a Democrat, returned to his desk in Springfield for the first time in about two weeks after a similar but more serious bout with appendicitis.

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State Sen. David Barkhausen (R., Waukegan) is the first GOP candidate to announce his intentions to run for attorney general in the 1986 elections.

In announcing his candidacy Sunday in Chicago, he criticized the

``bloated budget`` of incumbent Hartigan, which he said had increased 55 percent in two years. Barkhausen also accused Hartigan of bringing a ``Chicago City Hall mentality`` to the office by hiring on the basis of politics rather than credentials.

A legislator since 1981, Barkhausen, 35, has been concentrating this year on anticrime legislation as well as sponsoring bills attacking child pornography.

Barkhausen is not expected to be alone in the race. A colleague, Sen. Prescott Bloom (R., Peoria) is weighing a bid, as are House Minority Leader Lee Daniels (R., Elmhurst); Jim Reilly, Thompson`s chief of staff; and former Atty. Gen. Tyrone Fahner.

Chicago Ald. Martin Oberman (43d) is the only announced Democratic candidate, though State Comptroller Roland Burris and Senate President Philip Rock (D., Oak Park) are preparing their campaigns.